January 5, 2013 7:44 am

Washington Redskins running back Alfred Morris runs during the first half of an NFL football game Sunday, Dec. 30, 2012, in Landover, Md. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)

Doug Baldwin tried alerting his team to a talented running back that would be available at the late in of the draft, detailed in my story today.

The Seahawks receiver grew up in Pensacola, Fla., playing youth football and sharing spaghetti dinners made by Baldwin’s mother with Washington’s Alfred Morris.

“He was actually a hard-hitting linebacker, and I was the running back,” Baldwin said. “He was always aggressive, but very light-mannered; to himself and quiet. He never really was outwardly aggressive except on the football field.”

The Florida Atlantic University product was on Seattle’s radar, but the Redskins snapped him up in the sixth round, and as they say, the rest is history.

At 5-9 and 220 pounds and running a 4.67 at the scouting combine, Morris didn’t have great size or speed. But he beat out Tim Hightower, Evan Royster and Roy Helu for the starting job in the preseason, and churned out 1,613 yards and 13 touchdowns this season, proving a perfect fit for Washington’s zone blocking scheme.

Rod Mar of Seahawks.com has a nice shot of Seattle fans turning out to send the team off near Sea-Tac airport.

Jim Moore of 710 ESPN Seattle likes the Seahawks big over the Redskins, 27-10. Moore: “I sincerely hope that RG III is fully recovered next week when the Redskins’ season is over. But this week? To be honest, I hope his knee gives him problems. He didn’t look as mobile against the Cowboys. He also didn’t throw the ball as well as he usually does, completing a season-low 50 percent of his passes.”

Art Thiel of Sportspressnw.com notes that exactly zero Seahawks were alive when the Sonics won the city’s only major sports championship in 1979. The Seahawks are staying at the same hotel in D.C. that the Sonics stayed in when they defeated the Washington Bullets for the NBA title.

Doug Clawson of ESPN’s Stats & Info blog provides some statistical background on the frequency of Washington quarterback Robert Griffin III and the number of times that he’s been hit running the ball, which has went down the second half of the season. So Griffin has done a better job of sliding so he doesn’t get hit as much.

But here’s the number I found interesting: The Seahawks have faced 12 options rushes this season from the San Francisco 49ers and Carolina Panthers, allowing 3.3 yards per rush and only two first downs (league average is six yards per run).

Jim Trotter of Sports Illustrated profiles Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson in this in-depth piece. There’s some interesting nuggets of information there about what happened during the three-man quarterback competition leading up to the regular season.

Mike Silver of Yahoo Sports takes a look back at how Pete Carroll and John Schneider have put together a roster that has the Seahawks in the playoffs for the second time in three seasons.

Matt Williamson of Scouts Inc. previews the Hawks-Redskins game here after his film study of both teams. His key positional battle is Seattle’s offensive line vs. Washington’s defensive line, and how the Seahawks handle the Redskins’ zero blitzes. You must be an ESPN Insider to view this.

Jim Corbett of USA Today does his best to scrape together some bulletin board material for the Seahawks. He reports that defensive tackle Kedric Golston called Seattle cornerback Richard Sherman a cheater for testing positive for a banned substance. Sherman’s four-game suspension was reversed by the league after he won his appeal.

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About

Gregg Bell joined The News Tribune in July 2014. Bell had been the director of writing for the University of Washington's athletic department for four years. He was the senior national sports writer in Seattle for The Associated Press from 2005-10, covering the Seahawks in their first Super Bowl season and beyond. He's also been The Sacramento Bee's beat writer on the Oakland Athletics and Raiders. The native of Steubenville, Ohio, is a 1993 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., and a 2000 graduate of the University of California, Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism.

Feeds

We already had Turbin. Impossible to say what he could do with 335 carries like Morris had. Not saying he would’ve done the same or better. Having RGIII’s ability to run helped him. You could say the same about Lynch and RW, but Lynch already had a resume before RW. Morris was a great find, no doubt to me.

I had Morris on my fantasy team and sometimes he lit it up and other times he fell flat on his behind. He was solid throughout the regular season though and I expect him to be tough to catch by our D. We need to bring our A+ game to keep him in check.

Positively he had more carries because of RG3, also i wonder how many yards/ TD’s Lynch really had if his o-line didn’t get so many f’n penalties? Interesting that this is the 1st time in NFL history that 2 teams went into the playoffs with a 5+ game winning streak. The only difference is who we played ahem ahem.
Thiel’s piece on the hotel where the players are staying and how the only team to bring home a championship were the 1979 Sonics, to me that’s a good omen. Am i the only one that finds it funny that our capital is so politicly correct that it changed the name Bullets but it didn’t think that the name Redskins is offensive? At least our team is respectful. I can’t wait until tommorow, i bet i wake up at 2:30 or something.

For young players with talent, opportunity is a huge factor. Morris is lucky we didn’t draft him…just think, the guy who finished second in the league in rushing would have been buried on our depth chart, and maybe even on our practice squad. If he were on our roster today, he might still be the third best RB. That could be a clue to the game right there.

I for one am not on the Morris bandwagon.He is a good player and all, but he isn’t anything special.The Browns did a pretty good job on him (27 carries, 87yrds, 3.2 ypc) in RG3’s absence, though he had two 2tds.Kinda reminds me of Shonn Greene with the way he runs.

It’s also been stated several times about how the hawks did against option teams, and let’s not forget Cam Newton was actually healthy.So facing a skinny,gimpy RG3 doesn’t have me worried.

If anything though, I’m concerned that the offense may struggle early and allow the Skins to hang around.Hope not.

Ewalters7354 i agree that he’s pretty good but if he has 1 good run then Marshawn gets competitive and angry! I’ve seen this happen over and over. Turbin might be a better fit for us in his backup role.

Am I the only one who feels Green Bay isn’t a Super Bowl caliber team? I understand they have A-rod, good receivers, and Clay Matthews. But what else? Cris Carter just said it perfectly about how the only time they are good is when ALL their receivers are dominating.Those crybabies are very overrated.

Sir yes Sir Montana! Now that’s a RB that scares the crap outta people lol.Turbin is also with my agreement a better back-up.He is just as physical,very fast, and a pretty
darn good catcher.Pete loves players with unique qualities and Turbo fits that.Morris, not so much.

Good someone else who calls them (Green Bay) crybabies besides me lol. I have never cared for them too much, but I really can’t stand them after they acted like a bunch of whiners after that MNF game. If they don’t lose today, I hope the other whiny team beats them

Two guys on NFL Network just said we were the most likely team playing in this round to make it to the Super Bowl. And I liked Michael Irvin saying that he would have been intimidated by our corners and that other receivers undoubtedly are also

So I’ve been thinking about the Seahawks “road curse” and I kinda came to a conclusion that it’s a myth. I think the reason it gets a big deal made of it is because of how good they are at home, even when they’re BAD. After all, the 2005 Seahawks went 3-5 on the road, the 2010 Packers went 3-5 on the road. 3-5 on the road is not a bad stat especially when you’ve gone 8-0 at home.

Frankly, the Seahawks over the years have mostly been mediocre teams with great homefield advantage. Of course they’re not going to win on the road. Other similarly mediocre teams may not have such a great homefield advantage so their road/home wins balance out more.

SO I’m not worried about this team having to win on the road in the playoffs, because if they are really a good team, and I believe they are, they will find a way to win no matter where they are.

This team feels different from 2005. To me that felt like Holmgren’s team. This year I don’t think of it as Carroll’s team more like just a galvanized group of super tough players who’ve all got each others back.

There’s no prima donna (shawn alexander) playing for himself. There’s hardly anyone with playoff experience. This team is full of under-appreciated, looked over hungry players with a lot to prove.

2005 was a magical run. If the Hawks get it done this weekend, we’re looking at a whole new level.

The other difference with this team from other Seahawks teams is that they have become a significantly different team in the second half of the season than they were in first part. Growing experience, maturity, confidence and the coaches opening the play book has fundamentally changed this team into something altogether different. You have to throw out their first half stats and record with this team. They are a different team now.

I don’t see Minn winning today. GB will roll them up, IMO, although I’ll be rooting for the Viks. If we’re talking about super Bowl “frauds” that are playing today, Houston is at the top of the list (again, IMO).

In 2005, Seattle was 5-3 on the road. One loss was to the Redskins, with the help of several utterly bogus PI calls that extended drives. A tough loss, after which the Hawks won 11 straight, before losing on the road to GB with all the starters out in the second half, and a conservative game plan. We were 13-3 that year, and a very good team on the Road. Our two losses on the road were in the first month of the season and in a game that didnt matter. We beat a very good Dallas team on the road when we didnt play all that well.

Im waiting to compare this team to that one until we get to the NFC Title game. Just like then, we play the Redskins. I want to see us dominate, but I will take a 1 point win gladly. I just cant stand the thought of losing to them.

I will laugh SOOOO hard if GB losses to Minn today. Ponder out (Webb got most of the snaps this week) – then they can’t complain about “the call” anymore but I am sure they will say how we have complained about the refs since SB 40

T-Jack would have led Minny to a win tonight. Sad to say, because I really like Webb, but the guy didnt play this year, and has a lot to learn; going up against the Pack with all their WR’s healthy for the first time in ages when you beat them last week is a tall order for a pine-rider like Webb.

Personally, I would love to have Webb as our #3 qb, but he aint gonna win a playoff game this year.

After the first drive, the Vikings decided to have Joe Webb run the Christian Ponder offense and mostly went away from Joe Webb’s strengths. That’s the danger of having a backup QB with a different skillset than the starting QB. I’d hate to see Flynn running Wilson’s offense and the other way around.

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